Kansas State Basketball Set For Meaningless Trip to Knoxville
By Stan Unruh
The Kansas State Wildcats are preparing for another road trip. After a slow start and a great comeback that fell short in Ames, Kansas State gets to play a game that won’t help them earn an NCAA tournament bid.
Last August, ESPN finalized the networks and times for the 2017 SEC/Big 12 Challenge.
It’s a made for TV event created to fill the void on the weekend between the NFL conference championship games and the Super Bowl.
If you had the Kansas State game from Ames on ESPN Tuesday night, you saw all the promotions for this weekend’s games. The network has been selling it hard for about 10 days.
These non-conference games are fun to watch. However, they come with a big price to pay for the teams in the middle of the intense conference schedule.
| Saturday, January 28 | ||
| Texas A&M at West Virginia | ESPN | Noon ET |
| Florida at Oklahoma | ESPN | 1:00 pm CT |
| Kansas State at Tennessee | ESPN2 | 1:00 pm CT |
| LSU at Texas Tech | ESPNU | 1:00 pm CT |
| Texas at Georgia | ESPN | 3:00 pm CT |
| Iowa State at Vanderbilt | ESPN2 | 3:00 pm CT |
| Arkansas at Oklahoma State | ESPNU | 3:00 pm CT |
| Kansas at Kentucky | ESPN | 5:00 pm CT |
| Baylor at Mississippi | ESPN2 | 5:00 pm CT |
| Auburn at TCU | ESPNU | 5:00 pm CT |
Kansas State, still smarting from what could have been in the loss at Iowa State, has to travel to Knoxville. It’s not a simple trip. The Volunteers, under the guidance of former Texas coach Rick Barnes, are riding high from a win over Kentucky on Tuesday.
Bruce Weber will have to get the Wildcats, sitting at (4-4 in the Big 12, to take their focus off the conference standings and go on another road trip.
The young Tennessee team is very mediocre, according to some. Others say they are among the best 9-win teams in the country. This game won’t have an impact on building Kansas State’s resume for the NCAA tournament selection committee.
Fortunately, the Wildcats do have a home game and not until Wednesday following the Tennessee trip.
Coaches have not expressed much discontent over the extra non-conference game at an odd time of year. They probably don’t have much say in the decisions.
I’ll bet Kamau Stokes and Dean Wade would like a weekend off to get healthy?
They used to play the SEC/Big 12 Challenge before the conference season started.
Television rules the sports world and money is king. Sonic, the title sponsor pays a lot of money to be a part of this event. Now that we’re into the second year of this schedule, it’s not going to change. That doesn’t mean it’s what’s best for the players or teams.